The Cajun rice dish that typically combines chicken, sausage, and shrimp is jambalaya.
Jambalaya is a savory Louisiana rice dish in which meat or seafood, vegetables, stock, and seasonings cook together with rice. Common versions use chicken, smoked andouille sausage, and shrimp, although recipes vary widely and may include pork, crawfish, ham, or other seafood.
Its history reflects Louisiana’s mixture of African, French, Spanish, Caribbean, and Indigenous influences. Food historians have compared it with Spanish paella and West African rice dishes such as jollof rice, but jambalaya developed its own regional identity in Louisiana. Creole versions often include tomatoes, while many Cajun versions traditionally omit them.
Jambalaya is often confused with gumbo, but gumbo is a stew usually served over separately cooked rice. Dirty rice is another rice dish, generally made with finely chopped meat and organ meat, but it is not the canonical answer to this question. Jambalaya’s name may derive from a Provençal word meaning a mishmash or mix-up.